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Understanding The Middle East Book Club

Understanding The Middle East group meets on the third Monday of the month at 7 p.m. It has the purpose of exploring the rich culture of the Middle East through literature (poetry, fiction, memoirs). They do include readings of nonfiction as they try to gain an understanding of history and current events. Although they read writers from the west, the goal is to discover the many talented authors from middle eastern countries who may not be well known in the U.S. Even though discussions of politics cannot always be avoided, this is not the focus.

March 18 – Devil's Game by Robert Dreyfuss (Mar & Apr book). This meeting will not be in the store--it will be in the Community Room at Lake Boone Trail Starbucks, 3800 Lake Boone Trail, Raleigh NC 27607.

April 15 – Devil's Game by Robert Dreyfuss (Mar & Apr book). This meeting will not be in the store--location to be announced.

Alia Malek weaves a lyrical narrative around the history of her family's apartment building in the heart of Damascus, the many lives that crossed in the stairwell, and how the fates of her neighbors reflect the fate of her country.Reading Group Guide Included

"The most clear and engaging history of the deadly, historic partnership between Western powers and political Islam."—Salon.com

Devil's Game is the first comprehensive account of America's misguided efforts, stretching across decades, to dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating Islamic fundamentalism.

In Enemies and Neighbors, Ian Black, who has spent four decades studying and covering the Middle East, offers a major new history of the Arab-Zionist conflict, told from both sides.

Setting the scene at the end of the 19th century, when the first Zionist settlers arrived in the Ottoman-ruled Holy Land, Black draws on a wide range of sources--from declassified documents to oral testimonie